Donald Frey, the American engineer who designed the Mustang, the popular sport car that Ford launched in the mid-sixties, died at age 86, published the New York Times. Frey, born in Saint Louis (Missouri) in 1923, who carved a place in the automotive history creating one of the most popular vehicles of all times, died due to an embolism on March 5, explained his son Christopher to the New York newspaper.

Frey and his team devised in 1962 the first Mustang design, "pony car" type, with two seats and engine in central position, a bet that the president of the automobile, Henry Ford II, rejected on four occasions, but finally, after the engineer modified some aspects, agreed to manufacture.

Unexpected Success

After its presentation at the auto show in New York in 1964, Ford proposed to sell at least 80,000 units in a year, a figure that was eventually passed and two years after its launch, exceeded one million cars.

Following the success of the Mustang, which has been redesigned several times and has up to five generations in the market, Frey was named vice president of U.S. Ford, but in 1968 the engineer left the company.